Assessment of Relative Globalization in Asia During the 1980s and 1990s

摘要

This paper uses factor and discriminant analyses to generate indices of globalization. The first part of the paper describes the technique and we find that the Netherlands is the most globalized and Sierra Leone the least. In the second part of the paper, comparisons are made between South Asian, East Asian and Middle East countries to see if relative globalization process is proceeding at a faster or slower pace. Although the analysis is mostly regional, we introduce evidence for several countries, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, India and Malaysia to compare globalization and openness. Based on our findings, several conclusions are drawn concerning progress made and the economic implications of that progress. Because of the poor showing of Pakistan's globalization efforts, special attention has been focused on that country. The main finding is that Pakistan appears to have fallen into a vicious cycle of low and declining globalization leading to low productivity causing low rates of return on investment. The result is low investment and technology transfer which only reinforces the drift towards an increasing globalization gap with the country's main international competitors.